Blackadder Paints a Couple of Armies:

  • Dross into Gold:


    So what's Blackadder doing posting a painting thread; he doesn't know how to paint? Well I need a Space Marine army for my Thunderhawk and a Cadian army for my Tanks/Titans and Adeptus Mechanicus Priesthood Enclave again for the Titans so to show them off to their best so I decided to paint up some figures.


    Once again as with my Tyranids airbrushing foray I am totally at sea regarding painting so this learning experience for me will be of help to newly initiated into war gaming.


    I'm going to start with the Space Marines; my son with over 10 years in 40K Wargaming has progressed from a mere tyro to an accomplished painter/gamer but in the course of which has left behind literally hundreds of 'poor' to 'indifferently' finished figures so rather than plunk down beaucoup bucks for new squad kits I going to salvage the dross and turn it into gold (At least that is my intent and hope.)


    Below you see about a tenth of the derilict SM host I have to refurbish:


    http://i.imgur.com/bI6UGOp.jpg


    These SM figures were in the scrap bitz box and number about 200 figures in varied states of completion and execution.


    First I divided them up into homogeneous groups:


    http://i.imgur.com/8S7FvTf.jpg


    Again this is only a sampling of the number of figures I have to disassemble, clean, repair and paint.


    I employed my tried and true method of hammer and chisel to separate the figures from their bases and worried the arms, jet packs, what-have-you from the basic figures and scraped, carved, filed, and sanded the excess glue and thick paint from the figures....


    http://i.imgur.com/RJD9wUw.jpg


    Next post Please...............

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Nice, these are always the kind of projects we hobbyists like to "not" do. We all have these couples of miniatures in our bitzbox/in our suitcase that were our firsts and we are not particularly proud of. Just because they fall under the painting standrads we have accomplished by now. Repainting these often seems an arduous task.


    Im glad somebody is finally documenting his projects to refurbish these kinds of models to give the rest of us some hints and motivation to do it themselves.


    Thumbs up! I will continue to look into this thread.

  • Thanks for the reply and the vote of confidence;


    Of course it's a judgement call, I'm not going to spend a lot of time cleaning and repairing garbage. Some of these figures only have a coat of prime and some are bare styrene. Most of the cleaning only requires paring off glued seams buildup.


    Pieces that are too far gone can be used as hors de combat in related scenery.


    There are quite a few metal figures as well.


    The theme I am adopting is a basic black and 'Death World Forest' green which suits my understated taste:


    http://i.imgur.com/lnrlqWn.jpg


    and will go well with my proposed Thunderhawk and IG Cadians scheme.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Dreadnoughts:


    There are only two complete Dreadnoughts that I can find; one metal and one plastic. I disassembled them as far as practical, filed the mating surfaces for a flush fit (especially the metal one that bore a resemblance more so to a piece of slag than a combat vessel.)


    I filed the hood lines to crisp up the corners and re-assembled with sparing drops of cyanoacrylate glue......


    http://i.imgur.com/r1nFyxu.jpg


    These lump-like constructions are the better for simplistic paint schemes because the highly ornate paint work tends to obliterate their already murky lines.


    The unfortunate Chaos model is missing exhaust pack and leg assemblies.


    http://i.imgur.com/9pwjGdu.jpg


    Dreadnoughts are not among my favorite 40K denizens being more refugees from 'Silent Running' so I'm going to use them for practicing paint schemes.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Glued For the Ages:


    Okay before I go too far into this tutorial/ Learning experience I have to make a comment on model assembly. Now I know for a fact that these models were not built by my son because he got them from a friend.


    For the life of me I cannot fathom why anyone would glue together the entire model before painting; at least the hard to reach places. Paint it first then glue it together. And what gluing!!!!! I had to hammer seams, pry, Literally snap the model apart on two of the cycles to get the driver out of the seat! YA DON'T NEED THAT MUCH GLUE!!!!! Scrap a bit of the paint off were the pieces join and put on a small drop of glue.


    http://i.imgur.com/Mk5QSEy.jpg


    That way as your skills improve you can disassemble the model with ease and upgrade your work.


    Now nothing I did was irreparable because I've had a lot of practice. Chances are that no one will see the dissection seams but wouldn't it be easier to use a bit of discretion when gluing ????


    http://i.imgur.com/XYqVJtF.jpg


    Now that I've got that off my chest I can proceed with the painting.


    http://i.imgur.com/1aLop09.jpg

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Chaos Dreadnought:


    The snows fall'n and I've got a bit of a cold so I'm looking around for something simple to do and came upon these Dreadnoughts I started to refurbish last Summer.


    One SM plastic Dreadnought pretty much done but needs some embellishment on the top, the trouble is I have no idea what goes with it and I can't find it on google.


    Then I have a Metal SM Dreadnought that's also complete except for a broken left arm.


    Then we have the problem of the Chaos Dreadnought that has two right arms, no left CC weapon missing one foot and the exhaust manifold piece.


    http://i.imgur.com/q4GId6N.jpg


    That's where I shall start today; making those missing pieces.


    We'll start with the foot..............

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Chaos Dread' Boneyard:


    Well the last two of the Dreadnought squad has been cleaned, quite exhausting as the painting was thickly brush applied oil based gloss enamel that completely obscured the detail. I soaked everything in 'Simple Green for two weeks and wire brushed off as most I could then I boiled the remainder until softened and scrapped off the residue. The result came out pretty clean.


    We see the result here with the four previously primed and base-coated flat black cadre looking on.


    http://i.imgur.com/7QGHaI8.jpg


    Once all are is a similar state I can commence the painting proper.


    http://i.imgur.com/Xsyg4f2.jpg


    This was an arduous task for a bunch of worthless metal..........

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • The Joy of Sex:


    Sexy airbrushing that is; in the few short months that I've been building I'd forgotten how much fun it is to spray paint (with an airbrush of course) primer and basic black aerosol spray doesn't count.


    Well I fired up the old airbrush; it was completely clogged (someone forgot to clean it last Summer) so a quick cleaning and back in business.


    All I know about painting I learned from watch 'Buypainted's videos on youtube If there is a better painter I haven't found him.


    Anyway first a highlighting coat on the flat surfaces leaving a rim of black next to the raised metal areas...........


    http://i.imgur.com/3SmLfKD.jpg


    I'm using 'Vallejo ModelAir German Grey 71.052' for the highlighting, it's almost black so it's hard to see in the images but the flash picks it out better than natural light. You don't want it perfect because each Dread will be subtly unique but they all will have the same basic colouring so they look like a squad.


    http://i.imgur.com/rhga7my.jpg

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Parsimony Thy Name Is Blackadder


    Or vise-versa; frugality is my motto and considering how much these thimbles full of paint cost this information should be worth it's weight in gold.


    I've heard many extollations of the virtues of airbrushing but this hasn't been mentioned; to my knowledge anyway.


    I just painted all the grey highlights including a full tank worth of Baneblade bogies with 4 drops of paint


    and the all the green parts of the entire Chaos Dread squad with 7 drops of 'Vallejo Model Air Lt Grey Green 71.044' paint.


    You can't get more economical than that.


    http://i.imgur.com/lUtDDH7.jpg


    Of course I did thin the paint 50/50 with rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl) but that stuff is cheap.


    So who can afford not to airbrush?

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • A Case of Identity:


    I have quite a few Chaos metal figures in sorry state of repair and I was wondering if anyone can I identify them for me so I can put the proper weapons to the figures?


    This is just a starter line up.


    I know the second figure from the left is a Chaos Lord Abaddon The Despoiler
    and I have the right arm claw for him and I'll have to scrounge the sword.


    http://i.imgur.com/ZXWlcbt.jpg


    I'm not concerned about the two plastic figures I don't even think they are Chaos but the two metal figures at both ends seem worthwhile repairing and painting.


    If you can identify any of them call them left to right 1,2,3,4 or 5


    Thx,

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."